This mini-course on virtue-signaling will focus on what you can do to fight racism without taking any risks or examining your own complicity in white supremacist social structures. Lori Martin Associate Dean and Professor of African & African American Studies at Louisiana State University and author of Big Box Schools, Race, Education and The Danger of the Wal-Martization of Public Schools in America, points out that “when they think about racism, most people are really thinking about just overt manifestations like burning churches and burning crosses in front of people’s homes and not thinking about, like persistent racial wealth inequality or about the racial disparities in the criminal justice system.”*
Students will not be asked to purchase Dr. Martin’s book, nor will she be credited in the program materials. However, this course will use her insight into the safe zone of white anti-racism to identify the simple steps you can take to prove to yourself that you are not a racist without provoking any anxiety or introspection.
Course materials include a carefully curated selection of scenes from movies that take place in the Deep South, are set in the distant past, and feature a White Savior, as well as essays with white perspectives on “Tolerance” and “Acceptance.” Students will be asked to do roleplays in which they practice walking away from a racist conversation at a dinner party, act out avoiding a racist neighbor, and demonstrate giving small sums to antiracist groups via clicktivism on their i-phones. To avoid any awkwardness or discomfort, there will be no class discussion. At the end of the training, each attendee will receive a t-shirt with the slogan “I went to an anti-racism training and all I got was this lousy t-shirt” and a rainbow shower cap.
*A Word podcast with Jason Johnson, “Schoolyards to Prisonyards.”
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